Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah asks ministers to be honest and have 'moral courage'

BANGALORE: Over a month at the helm, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said he was working towards "visible changes" in administration and asked his ministers to be honest enough to have the "moral courage."

"Like charity begins at home..I have told my ministers that they will have the moral courage only if they are honest and only then can their words carry weight with the bureaucrats," Siddaramaiah told journalists here.

He said he has given strict instructions that transfers, one of the root causes of corruption, should be transparent. "Some changes are happening," Siddaramaiah, who took over as Chief Minister on June eight after the Congress's spectacular victory in the May five Assembly polls, said.

"We have promised the people that we will provide a clean and corruption free administration. We will try very seriously to give a sincere and clean government," said Siddaramaiah, whose party had used graft as the main electoral plank to unseat the BJP government.

He said he was aware that steps taken by government on the corruption issue would have a bearing on Lok Sabha polls.

On the Lokayukta report on illegal mining submitted by its former head Santosh Hegde, he said government would act on its recommendation to recover money from officials and politicians who caused the revenue loss after the CBI probing the issue submits its report.

Central Empowered Committee constituted by the Supreme Court was also examining the illegal mining issue, he said.

To a query, Siddaramaiah said government would give its go-ahead for further action against officials, including from the IAS and IPS cadres, according to law on the basis of the recommendations of the state Lokayukta.

"There are some 130 cases. But in some cases, action may not be required."